Towards Praxes of the Region: Agential Constructivist Approaches to Regionalisms
| Author | J. Andrew Grant |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/00207020231152250 |
| Published date | 01 September 2022 |
| Date | 01 September 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Scholarly Essay |
Scholarly Essay
International Journal
2022, Vol. 77(3) 414–429
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/00207020231152250
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Towards Praxes of the Region:
Agential Constructivist
Approaches to Regionalisms
J. Andrew Grant
Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, Kingston, ON, Canada
Abstract
While both formal and informal regionalisms examine the political ramifications of
economic flows of capital, goods, and people, there is a blurring of such conceptual
dichotomies in practice. Hence, in order to offer a more accurate account of the
distinctions and overlap between the formal and informal –and to rectify the tendency
to overlook the agency of African state actors and non-state actors –this article offers
an agential constructivist approach that seeks to advance a praxis –or praxes –of the
region. To that end, the article advances the concept of bifurcated interregionalisms as
a means of analyzing cases of regional dynamics and regionalisms in Southern Africa and
East Africa. The article concludes by offering some reflections on the future of re-
gionalisms in an emerging global order in flux whereby illiberal and xenophobic variants
of regionalisms compete with the liberal and cosmopolitan versions.
Keywords
Africa, regionalism, violent conflict, natural resources, regional organizations, norms,
theory and practice, informal economies, agency, constructivism
In recent years, scholars and practitioners have devoted greater attention to regions as
vital agents of economic development. Regions can be quite modest in size—micro-
regions as small as municipalities or macro-regions as large as West Africa exhibit
Corresponding author:
J. Andrew Grant, Department of Political Studies, Queen’s University, 68 University Avenue, Kingston,
Ontario K7L 3N6, Canada.
Email: andrew.grant@queensu.ca
compelling political economies of global development and human security. In the
case of the former, the role and regional implications of cities as engines of economic
growth have attracted much scholarly attention over the past decade. What is more,
regional development corridors covering amorphous geographical regions are yet
another intriguing form of regionalisms. These dynamics and the governance
challenges and opportunities such regions generate fall under the aegis of what may
be referred to as regionalism studies, which is often categorized as either formal
(state-led, state-centric, policy-driven) or informal (state and non-state actors as
drivers, poly-centric, challenges policy) in terms of focus. While both formal and
informal regionalism—more accurately conceptualized in the plural as region-
alisms—examine the political ramifications of economic flows of capital, goods, and
people, there is a blurring of such conceptual dichotomies in practice. Hence, in order
to offer a more accurate account of the distinctions and overlaps between the formal
and informal—and to rectify the tendency to overlook the agency (or agencies) of
African state and non-state actors—this article offers an agential constructivist
approach that seeks to advance a praxis—or praxes—of the region. Next, the em-
pirical core of the article, which is based in part on primary sources such as fieldwork
including participant observations,
1
provides some analyses of the regional dynamics
and regionalisms drawn from different parts of Africa. Specifically, the concept of
bifurcated interregionalisms is introduced and applied to two evocative, multi-
layered case studies: the Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado and Ethiopia’s
Tigray region, and their respective regional environments. The article concludes by
offering some reflections on the future of regionalisms in an emerging global order in
flux with the forces of “new nationalism”generating an illiberal and xenophobic
variant of regionalisms that run counter to the liberal and cosmopolitan type that
“global governors”and “global actors”sought to promote at global, regional, and
local levels.
Epistemological and ontological connective “sinews and
tissues”within the study of regionalisms
It is tempting for social scientists to analyze the causes, effects, and outcomes associated with
a particular puzzle or issue-area, and then offer generalizations and comprehensive con-
clusions about that particular phenomenon. Even the most reflexive social scientist might
succumb to this temptation because it provides a reassuring degree of problem-solving and
knowledge creation. Scholars of regionalism are no different; pronouncements of findings
regarding a particular form of regionalism abound. However, such understandings of re-
gionalism offer a somewhat myopic view of the complexity and many “sides”of re-
gionalism. Timothy Shaw has encouraged scores of scholars to pursue epistemological and
1 Including, but not limited to, fieldwork conducted in Sierra Leone in 2003, 2008, and 2010, Ghana in 2007,
2008, and 2016, Uganda in 2016, South Africa in 2003, 2013, and 2015, and the Democratic Republic of
Congo in 2022.
Grant 415
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